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The Boring Portfolio

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Dec. 5, 1997) -- The Boring Portfolio finished this
first week of December by rising 1.13% on Friday, its sixth consecutive gain.
That compared with advances of 1.10% and 1.27% for the Nasdaq and S&P
500, respectively.

Stocks rose despite Friday morning's news that U.S. unemployment had fallen
to a 24-year low of 4.6% in November. You figure it out.

For the week, the Borefolio rose 2.71%, outpacing the Nasdaq's weekly gain
of 2.08% and just behind the S&P 500's impressive 2.97% advance. Slowly
but surely, the Borefolio is climbing its way out of the crater created from
the implosion of former holding Oxford Health Plans(Nasdaq: OXHP)
in October and the slightly less dramatic but equally unanticipated setback
by Green Tree Financial(NYSE: GNT).

Borders Group(NYSE: BGP) eased $9/16 after touching its all-time
high on Thursday. Borders announced plans for two new superstore openings.
One is in Atlanta -- at Cumberland Blvd. & Cobb Pkwy. For those keeping
score, that'll be Borders' fifth store in the Peach State and its second
one in Atlanta. This other one will be in Fairview Heights, Ill., which is
just across the river from Borefolio co-manager Mark Weaver's hometown of
St. Louis.

On the up-side -- which is the side it's usually on -- Cisco Systems(Nasdaq: CSCO) picked up $2 15/16 to close a few pennies under $90. Comments
from executives at Ascend(Nasdaq: ASND) to the effect that they are
comfortable with the Street's 1997 fourth-quarter and 1998 earnings forecasts
helped bolster networking stocks. That's a pleasant change from the kind
of news that's come from Cisco's "rivals" lately.

Earlier this week, The Motley Fool published my recent
interview
with Cisco's Director of Investor Relations, Mary Thurber. If you missed
it, I invite you to check it out.

Finally, Tidewater(NYSE: TDW) surged $4 5/8 as energy stocks rebounded
after news from OPEC meetings and Iraq proved to be less momentous than some
traders may have anticipated. I had been half-expecting to hear something
from the folks in New Orleans by now about the sale of their gas compression
division. I expect we'll get the news all in good time. They don't call it
"The Big Easy" for nothing, I guess.

Speaking of things big and easy, I hope your weekend is like that... and
mine, too.